Kwara court convicts 33 for indiscriminate dumping of refuse, others

Thirty-three environmental offenders have been convicted by a mobile court set up by the Kwara State Government.

Our correspondent learnt that 21 of the offenders were convicted on Wednesday while 12 others were sentenced on Thursday.

Press Secretary in the state Ministry of Environment, Yakub Aliagan, confirmed the conviction in a statement on Thursday.

He said, “21 offenders were convicted on Wednesday while another 12 offenders who were arrested by environmental officers operating in Ilorin Metropolis on Wednesday were tried and convicted by the Special Mobile Court on Thursday.”

The convicts paid between N2,000 and N10,000 fine to the government after conviction according to a director of environment, Mrs Mary Mustapha.

The spokesman for the Nigeria Security and Civil Defense Corps in the state, Ayoola Shola, confirmed that those arrested during the enforcement were brought to the corps’ facility before being conveyed to the Ministry of Environment where the mobile court was sitting.

The state government had on Monday, inaugurated a 300-man surveillance taskforce to check indiscriminate dumping of refuse in the Ilorin metropolis.

The state Commissioner for the Environment, Nafisat Buge, said during the inauguration of the environmental task force held at the ministry’s conference hall, in Ilorin, that, “indiscriminate dumping of refuse is a general phenomenon that requires urgent attention, most especially in Ilorin metropolis.”